Your PR Guide

Feature writing for press release distribution

20 April

Feature writing is different from straight news writing. The difference could be slight or significant depending on the topic. News writing is based mainly on current events that a news reporter writes about in the press release. In news writing, there is a substantial barrage of facts about who, what, where, when, and how.

In feature writing, the writer’s insights and analysis about an event are incorporated into the written material, not just a writer’s opinion but an intelligent discussion of issues based on data and research. In feature writing, a writer’s opinion is placed under the microscopic lens of critical thinking and analysis.

Feature writing reflects the creativity of the writer expressed in the language that the writer uses. This type of material, when applied to the making of a press release could enrich the PR material, especially when the PR is about the launching of a product (or the product itself), about a new company or corporate project or service, such as an environmental support project. You can learn more about press releases on this page: newswire.com/features/distribution

While feature writing still follows the conventional format of a press release, the pattern could be closer to a blog published on individual blog sites. This type of writing is also closer to the goals of public relations where always “putting the best foot forward” becomes the rule than the exception. Public relations is an objective more than a task. It is a department where the job of making press releases to support public relations goals are established.

Feature writing, therefore, is more of a public relations task than merely a work for the making of news-oriented press releases. Any straight news report can also be expanded and supplemented by feature writing. An extra two paragraphs of a creative explanation about a news event, for instance, could make a difference between an ordinary press release and a featured PR.

Any app that enhances writing cannot replace the original creative thought of a writer doing a feature. While existing apps may make a PR material a standout, the essential creation remains with the writer who writes the feature.

The best features can become new content in a business’ arsenal of information and multimedia catalog. Content creation is a function of the company or corporation that owns the product or service that the company wants to advertise by way of a distributed press release. Content distribution is a function of the online service provider.

In writing a feature, search for items, issues, characteristics, distinctive marks, uniqueness, signs or concerns that make a difference in the person featured, or in the product or service a writer wrote about in the PR. Describe each of these characteristics in such a way that a

reader’s interest will be riveted to continue reading the article. A brief story or anecdote about the story item could enhance the feature PR.

Feature writing highlights the unusual instead of focusing on the usual. The rare or unique is the one that gets the attention of readers. What is unique, for instance, about this particular product, compared to other similar products in the market? Features focus more on the advantages of a product or services being made visible by the company or business.

Press Release Quote

How I: Write press releases to get international media coverage

My Plus One and Airspruce founder and media professional Clare Freeman outlines how she writes a great press release, and uses media relationships, to get her startups international coverage in publications like The New York Times magazine and Condé Nast Traveler.